Q&A /

Storing Building Materials

DEAR TIM: I'm getting ready to build a new home and the weather will start to get colder and wetter. My wife and I are really concerned about materials left out in the weather. What are some best practices we can put in place with our builder so that our house does not suffer any more than it has to? What are some reasonable expectations that we can expect from our builder? What's not too important? Randy P., Racine, WI

DEAR RANDY: It's really smart for you to think about all of this before you start. It's even better to include provisions in your contract about material storage and wet construction situations. Many people freak out about their houses getting wet during the construction process, but they need to realize that water and construction go hand in hand unless you're building in the Atacama desert.

Expensive building supplies and materials are exposed to rain and the sun. That's not a good practice. Photo Credit: Tim Carter

The first thing to do is specify materials that are not harmed by water. Traditional oriented strand board (OSB), a material that's supplanted plywood as the primary floor, wall and roof sheathing material, has a bad reputation for swelling when it gets wet. You can now purchase an OSB product for subfloors that's guaranteed not to swell, even if it's got standing water on it.

Wall and roof sheathing products are available that have plastic coatings that repel water. These are good products so long as they allow water vapor to pass through them with ease.

Don't worry about traditional wood wall studs, floor joists and roof rafters getting wet. This solid lumber will not be harmed by repeated periods of rain. Many people think that the wood will rot in a short time. This will not happen.

It's imperative that you have a great builder who has fantastic subcontractors. You want the builder to get the house frame up as rapidly as possible and get the house under roof so that rain becomes a non factor. Have a serious talk with your builder and get firm commitments as to what's going to happen to ensure work is happening on any good weather day.

To this end, when building late in the season with bad weather a possibility, I'd seriously consider looking at manufactured housing options. It's possible to have your house delivered to the building site nearly completed. A crane can lift the house sections together and in a matter of hours, or a few days, the entire house is weatherproof.

At the very least, consider prefabricated walls that could shave a week or two off the building schedule. Within a week or two, your house could be under roof as many walls can be tilted in place or set by a crane in hours.

Materials delivered to the job site need to be protected from the rain and sun if possible. Stacks of lumber should not rest directly on the soil. Try to get an air space of 4 inches under the wood. Cover lumber with waterproof tarps, but allow two ends to be open so air can pass through the covered lumber pile.

Wall studs and timbers can twist and bow if allowed to be stored in direct sunlight. It's best to store lumber in the shade if at all possible. This is not easy to do, and it will add to your construction costs if you move the lumber into the structure.

Understand that hunting season can have a detrimental effect on your house project. In some parts of the USA, hunting season is more important to people than just about anything. Construction workers can suddenly disappear into the forest. They'll sit for hours in the rain waiting for an animal, but they'll rarely work in the rain for money to pay bills. Hunting manifests strange human behavior!

If your house gets soaked with water as it's being framed and as the roof goes on, be sure to slow the construction process until the lumber dries well. You can make a huge mistake by allowing the builder to install insulation, vapor barriers and drywall over lumber that saturated with water.

Standing water in a basement is not a good thing. Be sure that drain lines are in place or pumps are used to prevent your basement from turning into an indoor swimming pool.

If you have a sizeable budget, you can actually erect a large tent over the construction site and create an artificial environment for the builder. You can do the same thing with pipe scaffolding and simple floor trusses that are used to create a temporary roof over the site.

It's all about money at the end of the day. In certain instances, it may make financial sense to go to these extremes to create a dry and pleasant work environment for those working on your home.

You can watch a video that shows a waterproof OSB flooring at www.AsktheBuilder.com. Simply type "flooring tips video" into the search engine at www.AsktheBuilder.com.

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One Response to Storing Building Materials

Thanks for explaining the best way to store wall studs and timbers. I'm working on using them to renovate my house, so I need to know how to prevent them from twisting and getting warped. Keeping my lumber in the shade seems like a good way to keep them from warping. Making sure they're in a cool, dry place seems like the best way to keep them in good condition, so I'll try to find a place for them.